For my first editorial as PASS President, I want to take a moment to thank all
of you who voted in our Board elections in December and encourage you to get
even more involved in your organization in this new year.

It was awesome to see the excitement generated by a phenomenal slate of
candidates and by wide-ranging community discussion about the biggest issues and
opportunities facing our organization. I challenge all of us to translate that
energy into creative solutions to help SQL Server professionals around the world
connect, share, and learn. With your help, 2012 is going to be a great year for
PASS!

One of the first tasks for the President each year is to assign Board members to
portfolios, and I’m excited to announce this year’s portfolio leaders.
Read More.

5000+ Followers on Twitter!
Thanks to Matt Hanson (@majahanson311), who became our 5000th follower on
Twitter the first week of January.

Matt, a SQL Server DBA and .NET programmer working for MITRE in McLean, VA, said
all the Twitter talk at PASS Summit 2011 prompted him to sign up to keep up with
the community.

It’s back! You’ve heard the buzz, you’ve seen the
past
session recordings, and you love your SQL Server training – now it’s time to
mark your calendar with two important dates. The
next 24 Hours of
PASS event will feature 24 back-to-back online technical sessions beginning
March 21 at 00:00 GMT. Then for our Russian community it’s back again on April
12 with the 24 Hours of
PASS, Russian edition. No matter where you are in the world, you’ll gain
access to the best SQL Server training, delivered to your computer. Registration for both events opens in February.

In the meantime, consider submitting an abstract. We're opening up Call for Speakers on January 16th for the english speaking event and are currently accepting abstracts from Russian speaking presenters. We’re looking for presenters from across the
globe who can deliver tips, tricks and best practices around SQL Server,
especially SQL Server 2012.
Find out more.

Planning on attending
PASS SQLRally?
Sign up by Jan 14 at the early rate of $299!
Register now.

Special Ops Tour: Submission Deadline Extended
The Special Ops Tour, brought to you by Microsoft and PASS,
is deep into the planning stages. The time has come to select the 12 DBA
operatives who have the skills and accomplishments to join the team. You could
be one of the 12 – tell us how you resolved any IT problem using SQL Server
2012, RC0 by January 24th.
Find out more.

PASS HQ Spotlight: Karla Landrum

Community Evangelist Karla Landrum is spreading the good news about PASS
Chapters and SQLSaturdays around the world and helping develop a new generation
of leaders in the SQL Server community. No wonder her Twitter avatar is Wonder
Woman. Read more.